Last weekend my parents came to visit me, officially marking the half-way point of my exchange. Along with them came my aunt and uncle visiting from Georgia. Together we did one thing I had been waiting for since the second day I was in the country, when I saw it for the first time.
The Sea Palace is a floating Chinese restaurant that rests on the Amsterdam harbour, near Centraal Station and my beloved Bibliotheek. It’s modelled after Jumbo Kingdom in Hong Kong. Coming from a place with more Chinese restaurants than there are people (Markham), I’ve been aching for cheap, good Chinese food since I got here. Unfortunately, neither can be find here. The former doesn’t come as a surprise but the unwavering mediocrity of the food does.
Since coming to the Netherlands I’ve developed a reputation as cheap among my friends. A few months ago, I’d be the first to tell you, it’s part of my Chinese upbringing. Bargains, coupons, haggling: they’re in my blood. (Well maybe not haggling in my case.) But halfway in, I’m reformulating my theory. As a North American, I find this country incredibly stingy. This is a place where you have to pay for condiments at fast-food restaurants, where they often deny you tap water at restaurants to force you to buy mineral, or better yet charge you 0.30€ for tap. I find these charges unreasonable and perhaps even offensive; it’s just not the way things are done.
So taking that sentiment a step further, Chinese people just expect more for their money. Usually when you go to a Chinese restaurant for dinner, you get a free soup to start the meal and free dessert of either fruits or a dessert soup. These frills aren’t expensive or especially good, but we’re just used to having them. So when we had to ask if there was any dessert that would follow our 100€ meal and the waiter had to check with the manager, we knew this place wasn’t legit. The overly Asian-themed interior decorations and lack of Asian people were warning signs but this confirmed it. We did get the fruit in the end though.
The food wasn’t bad but on par with the delicious $5 take-away meals I get back home. Granted, no one comes here for good food but rather for the view and novelty. If those are the only two criteria you have coming into the Sea Palace, then this place delivers. The interior is nothing if not grand with sculptures and fake pagodas dotting the premises. The panoramic view of the harbour is the perfect background for any seafood lover.
The staff did seem to take interest in us, since we were, like them, a table of Hong Kong ex-pats. My parents explained they were here to visit me on exchange to study journalism abroad. The waiter cracked a smile and asked if he was going to see me on TVB, the quintessential HK television station. I had to explain that I was a primarily an English speaker. Though in hindsight my English-accented Cantonese probably told him already.
He told us that he had a daughter my age and sighed that he was putting her through a degree in architecture. Finally, something I recognized! Lamenting the security of your child’s financial future is fundamental aspect of small-talk among Asian parents. Some things don’t change no matter where you immigrate.
